14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Ty
Two weeks ago
All he remembered was the cold. He had no idea how long he’d been floating in the water—battered by the rough rapids, slamming into rocks, his head just able to pop up for the briefest gulps of air, before tumbling back under.
He’d tried to kick and swim with all his strength, but his limbs felt like lead and didn’t move the way he wanted. He couldn’t feel his hands, or his feet, and he was often so disoriented he didn’t know which way was up or down.
After some amount of time—he had no idea how much—he noticed a battered log floating next to him and he reached for it, hanging on with all his might as the river continued to consume him.
He clung to the log, resting his head on it, as he went in and out of consciousness. Eventually, he stopped shivering from the cold, and it felt like relief. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that was a bad sign, but he had so much trouble focusing on it or being concerned.
All he could do was cling to the log.
At some point, he swore it felt like he was falling, only to crash down into the water once more.
The fall hurt, and he felt a crushing blow to his collarbone, but his mind barely registered it.
He maintained his focus on his grip—the way the rough, wet bark felt on his cheek as he grasped on to it with his dwindling strength.
He banged into rocks, smashing from one side of the river to another, causing his collarbone to throb painfully, but all the jostling and pain had the benefit of keeping him awake. It kept him awake, and it kept him alive.
Soon, it was night, and he opened his eyes blearily to find that he was no longer in the water—well, not all the way. His head and torso were on something solid, while the river lapped at his legs, trying futilely to pull him back into its course.
He shifted slightly, raising up on his elbows and scooting back as much as he could to get out of the water, but his body wouldn’t cooperate.
His muscles barely worked and his left collarbone was throbbing dully—the cold making it hard to feel much of anything at all—and it took several minutes before his feet were fully on the snow-covered bank.
As he lay there, exhausted, feeling sleep tugging at him, he felt his wet clothes begin to stiffen on his body.
He vaguely thought that he needed to get a fire going, or that he might be in serious danger of freezing to death, but it was hard for his mind to hold on to the thought—it kept slipping away like sand through his fingers.
After Iblis only knew how many minutes, he drifted back into consciousness again and was able to roll over onto his stomach, using his uninjured side to inch further from the riverbank and into the forest. He still wasn’t shivering, which he knew was bad.
He needed to find some way to get his body temperature up, even though he just wanted to lay down and rest.
He pushed himself, disciplining his mind to concentrate as he fought to get to a recently downed tree about twenty body lengths away from him.
The tree still had a significant amount of branches covered in green pine needles, with snow packed on top from the recent storms. If he could get underneath for a while, maybe he could insulate himself enough to warm up a bit.
He knew that in his current state, starting a fire would be futile—he had zero supplies.
The effort it would take to find a suitable rock for striking a spark, and gathering enough branches, which were bound to be soaking wet and cold…
No. His best chance was insulation right now, until he got his body temperature back up.
After what felt like an age of shuffling his barely functioning body towards the tree, he made it, and was able to squeeze under one of the drooping branches, only to be met with a pile of snow falling on top of him.
He brushed it off as best he could and tucked himself deeper into the tree’s branches.
There were just enough branches underneath him that they kept him off the cold ground, and some over top packed with snow to preserve some of his warmth.
Pine branches scratched him in the face and back, but he didn’t care.
He was just glad to be done moving for the time being, and his last thought, before his eyes drifted closed, was that he hoped he would make it to see the sun rise again in the morning, because there was something important he was missing, though he couldn’t remember what.
***
Ty awoke to a rough blow to his side, followed by a pile of snow crashing on top of him. He tried to roll away from whatever had struck him, but he had trouble even opening his eyes.
The blow came again, harder this time, and he groaned.
What was happening?
“So you are alive,” a female voice spoke from somewhere outside of his shelter.
Ty’s heart seized. It was daylight now, but he couldn’t see much with the tree branches hanging over him. He felt the woman tug on his feet, dragging him out. His back scraped on the rough branches underneath him, and more snow fell on top of him as he was rudely extricated from his makeshift home.
Ty had just enough mental fortitude to reach for the knife at his belt as he emerged, but as he looked down at his side, he noticed his fingers were blackened and numb and wouldn’t grasp the hilt.
The woman leaned over him, and he got his eyes open enough to see her—but he couldn’t see much. She was covered in furs from head to toe, the only part of her visible was her eyes, which were strikingly unique. One of them was light green, and the other a dark black—darker even than Steig’s eyes.
He tried to flinch as she reached out to touch his skin, but he couldn’t move that fast. Her fingers made contact with his bare cheek, and she immediately tsked.
“You are nearly frozen to death,” she said with disdain, as if it were shameful that he’d gotten so cold.
The way she spoke was strange too. Ty could understand her, but some of the words sounded different. Was that the cold getting to him?
The woman disappeared from his view, doing Iblis only knew what, and Ty tried to force his sluggish brain to take stock of himself.
He couldn’t hold his knife to defend himself.
Could he stand? Could he fight if he needed to?
He could probably still muster enough mental concentration to use his Power if he needed an advantage, but—
The woman reappeared with a bundle of sticks under her arm, then proceeded to clear the space at the base of the fallen tree of snow and pile them strategically.
Was she starting a fire for him?
Maybe she didn’t mean harm then. Maybe…
Ty felt himself start to drift off again, until he felt a sharp slap on his face.
“No, no, no,” the woman said. “No more of that. You need to stay conscious.”
The slap made him angry, which raised his blood pressure slightly and did the trick. He felt his brain stutter to life once more as he rolled over slowly on his side towards the fire the woman was building.
The woman struck a piece of flint a few times and a fire blazed to life on the sticks and pine needles she’d gathered.
Then she turned towards him and put her arm underneath his side, lifting him into a sitting position and dragging him under his arms to the base of the tree, which she propped him up against.
His collarbone screamed at him, but he didn’t fight her at all.
The fire was warm in front of him, and the snow that was still on him began to melt immediately.
He focused on staying awake, like she’d said, as she continued to feed it and build it up.
The longer he sat by the fire, the more his brain started to work again, and he realized who this woman must have been…
She must have been one of the Omnis worshippers they’d been looking for.
They.
Ena and Turner.
Iblis! The thought came to him so sharply, like waking up from a dream and having reality crash back into you.
He’d fallen into the river when the log had hit him. They’d been safe on the bank, but where were they now? Were they still safe? Had they gone after him?
His mind was frantic all of a sudden as the reality of his situation sunk in.
“There you are,” the woman said tauntingly.
Ty looked up to find her strange gaze assessing him.
“Your mind is working again, no?”
Ty didn’t respond. She suddenly seemed more hostile than she had a few minutes ago, and he found himself assessing her too.
“I’ll take that scowl as a yes,” she said with a smile in her voice. “Which means you are aware enough to tell me…who are you?”
Who was he? He had the very same question for her, and several follow-ups, because if she had found him, did that mean that others had found, or might find, Ena and Turner? Would they be hostile to them? He wasn’t there to protect Ena and the baby if there were any violent misunderstandings.
He had to get back to them—now.
Ty tried to move, but his body still felt heavy and exhausted—though not quite as lead-filled as it had a few minutes ago—and when he went to move his arm, he let out an involuntary grunt of pain at the feel of his collarbone, which was no doubt broken.
The woman eyed him, clearly noticing his discomfort. “You will not be well enough to run or fight for many hours, maybe even days yet, so none of that,” she said, gesturing at his pitiful attempt to move. “Just tell me who you are.”
Ty sighed, realizing that his go-to tactic of physical force was not going to protect him right now, so he’d have to try another: reason.
“My name is Ty,” he said, his mouth moving slowly still. “I’m from the other side of the Chasm Mountains.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “I assumed as much, given your strange appearance, but…” She studied him. “Ty, you said?”
Ty nodded before resting his head back against the tree’s root base.
She furrowed her brow at that, as if his name was curious to her. “Why have you traveled so far from your home, Ty?” she asked suspiciously.